Cities have the potential to store vast amounts of carbon, according to a new study. National Geographic reports on the work of Galina Churkina of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research in Germany:

Churkina and colleagues pulled together previous evidence looking at various stores of organic carbon—carbon that comes from living things, as well as from such as plants and animals, wood, dirt, and even garbage.
Cities—including both dense metropolises and sprawling suburbs—store about a tenth of all the carbon in U.S. ecosystems, the study estimated.
In total, U.S. cities contain about 20 billion tons of organic carbon, mostly in dirt, according to the new study to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Global Change Biology.

Of all the urban carbon, about three billion tons are locked up in man-made materials - two thirds in rubbish dumps and the rest in building materials like wood. The story continued:

Many cities have already launched ambitious plans for turning gray to green, such as Los Angeles' Million Trees LA project, which aims to plant a million trees in the Californian city over several years.

Building timber instead of concrete houses could also help to sequester carbon, said Leif Gustavsson, an expert on green technology at Mid Sweden University. But he said the main carbon benefit is from the embodied energy of the construction itself, rather than carbon stored in the material.                                     

Meanwhile, earth scientist David Pataki of the University of California stressed that getting urban soils to store more carbon would be a careful balancing act. "Managing urban soils to store more carbon can use energy, and those fossil fuel emissions have to be taken into account," he told National Geographic.

The Pay As You Save (PAYS) concept that we at Construct Ireland have been promoting - the idea of providing up front financing for low energy refurbs and charging householders over time on their utility bills - has been gaining popularity, as I blogged about recently (here and here). Now the New York state senate has passed a law that will enable homeowners to avail of energy upgrade loans they can repay over time on their energy bills. It's a bit different to the PAYS concept we're promoting, which would involve a repayment tariff attached to a household bill rather than a loan attached to an individual bill-payer. But the general idea is the same. 

 Richard Defendorf writes on GreenBuildingAdvisor.com: 

The Green Jobs initiative, which is designed to provide upfront financing for energy-efficiency retrofits to both homeowners and businesses, is similar to programs already offered by other jurisdictions, including municipalities in California, Colorado, and Virginia, and the city of Babylon, New York, on Long Island. Even in the U.K., the city of London is trying to address the energy inefficiencies in its aging housing stock by offering homeowners subsidies for weatherization improvements.

The initiative will be financed  through the sale of carbon emission credits under a local cap-and-trade initiative for power plants  

Defendorf explained how the programme will work: 

The loans will be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which focuses primarily on the reduction of petroleum consumption but also on research into the environmental effects of energy consumption, the development of renewable resources, and other technology innovations. The loan limit for each residential customer is $13,000, and $26,000 for each business. Loan costs will be added to participants’ monthly energy bills, although the energy savings from each retrofit – which should reduce usage by 30% to 40% – is expected to be larger than the loan payment

Green Building isn't a fad. The Top 100 (green contractors) generated $38.69 billion in revenue in 2008 from projects registered with or certified by third-party rating groups under objective environmental or sustainable development standards. This marks a startling 70% [increase from] $22.76 billion [in revenue generated] for the group in 2007.  Green Building Law Update

The Jevons paradox: How energy efficiency improvements could be undermining sustainability: Green Building Advisor

How do internal and external finishes effect energy performance? Green Building Advisor

Talking Head David Byne's vision of a perfect city: Wall Street Journal

We're busy at work on the next issue of Construct Ireland, which is due out in early September, so blogging might be a bit thin over the next week or two.

But for now, here's a few interesting stories worth checking out: 

Australian scientists develop world's solar cell (apparently): Inhabitat

The world's tallest timber building planned - but will it sequester carbon? Treehugger 

Guide to eco-friendly furniture:  Green Building Advisor

Demystifying green roofs: Green Building Law Update 

Isle of Islay to be powered by the tide? Guardian 

Hemcrete hits North America: Inhabitat 

The Pay As You Save (PAYS) concept that we at Construct Ireland have been promoting - the idea of providing up front financing for low energy refurbs and charging householders over time on their utility bills - has been gaining popularity, as I blogged about recently (here and here). 

 

Now the New York State Senate has passed a law that will enable homeowners to avail of energy upgrade loans that they can repay over time on their energy bills. It's a bit different to the PAYS concept we're promoting, which would involve a repayment tariff attached to a household bill rather than a loan attached to a individual bill-payer. But the general idea is the same. 

 

Richard Defendorf writes on GreenBuildingAdvisor.com: 

 

The Green Jobs initiative, which is designed to provide upfront financing for energy-efficiency retrofits to both homeowners and businesses, is similar to programs already offered by other jurisdictions, including municipalities in California, Colorado, and Virginia, and the city of Babylon, New York, on Long Island. Even in the U.K., the city of London is trying to address the energy inefficiencies in its aging housing stock by offering homeowners subsidies for weatherization improvements.

 

The initiative will be financed  through the sale of carbon emission credits under a local cap-and-trade initiative for power plants. 

 

Defendorf explained how the programme will work: 

 

The loans will be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which focuses primarily on the reduction of petroleum consumption but also on research into the environmental effects of energy consumption, the development of renewable resources, and other technology innovations. The loan limit for each residential customer is $13,000, and $26,000 for each business. Loan costs will be added to participants’ monthly energy bills, although the energy savings from each retrofit – which should reduce usage by 30% to 40% – is expected to be larger than the loan payment.

In the latest installment of his excellent Greenwash column, the Guardian's Fred Pearce asks whether a wind farm could result in more carbon emissions than a coal-fired power station. Referring to a proposed 187 square kilometre wind farm on the Shetland Islands - potentially the largest in Europe - Pearce writes:

More than half of the wind turbines in Scotland are on highland peat. This is not sensible. Scottish peat bogs hold three-quarters of all the carbon in British ecosystems – equivalent to around a century of emissions from fossil fuel burning.

Apart from water, peat bogs are largely composed of huge volumes of saturated, undecayed plants. A single hectare typically contains more than 5000 tonnes of carbon, ten times more than a typical hectare of forest. But any disturbance leads to lower water levels and to the peat drying, oxidising and releasing its carbon, says biochemist Mike Hall of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust.
The bog can decompose for hundreds of metres round every turbine, potentially releasing millions of tonnes of carbon. The process is slow, but frequently unstoppable, Hall says. So many wind farms may eventually emit more carbon than an equivalent coal-fired power station.

This poses the questions - considering so much talk of expanding wind power in Ireland has centred on our boggy west coast, and considering Bord Na Mona's plans to become a major player in the wind sector, has any analysis been carried out of the potential for wind farm development to release large quantities of carbon from Irish bogs? Will this be considered on a case-by-case basis for wind farms proposed in boggy areas?

Over on Treehugger, Warren McLaren wonders about the potential for timber housing to act as a carbon sink, referencing an Australian report (scroll down) on the topic. He writes:

And I remembered a report I saw last month in The Age newspaper that suggested that timber frame houses were excellent carbon sinks. Not a trick that steel can replicate. According to research:

Almost 100 million tonnes of carbon is stored in timber in Australian houses, with about 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent added each year as new houses are built ...

That annual addition would absorb about 0.4% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions (as measured in 2006), but has been on the decline as Australian houses have utilised more bricks, concrete, metal and plastics in the past 20 years. The study noted that were more wood used, “annual carbon storage in houses could rise from 1.6 million tonnes in 2008 to 4 million tonnes in 2050.”

He also notes:

The report, entitled “Dynamics of Carbon Stocks in Timber in Australian Residential Housing” does need to be considered with a degree of circumspect, because it was commissioned by industry body, Forest & Wood Products Australia, who obviously have a vested interested in higher timber use.

However, industry influence aside, the researchers at Melbourne University's Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, and the NSW Department of Primary Industries did collate some intriguing figures. For instance, they calculated that whilst most wood used in houses was historically sourced from Australian native forest or imported timber, these days 80% is derived from domestic softwood plantations.

 

It may be over two weeks since it was published, but I still thought it would be worth attempting to summarise the main points from the ESRI's 'Policy Options to Reduce Ireland's Greenhouse Gas Emissions' report. Ultimately it recommends the inevitable, a carbon tax, which it says will discourage carbon emissions while allowing 'actors' in the economy to respond flexibly based on the most appropriate methods of reducing carbon in their particular sector. It would also provide revenue for the government to offset the negative effects of a rise in fuel prices, enabling it to encourage competitiveness through reductions in labour and income taxes, and to support the vulnerable. What I find most interesting is the acceptance that we need to put a price on the limited capacity of the atmosphere to absorb man-made carbon emissions - if that's the case, don't we also need to put a price on other finite elements of the biosphere that we exploit, such as biodiversity? 

Among its most interesting observations and conclusions are the following:

Rob Moody has posted an interesting article on Greenbuildingadvisor.com about home energy efficiency measures that don't actually save much energy.

 Among his suggested culprits?

 Boiler tune-ups, floor insulation, window replacement and cooling your attic. 

The Guardian reports on attempts by scientists to mimic the energy-producing abilities of plants:

Now scientists developing the next generation of clean power sources are working out how to copy, and ultimately improve upon, the humble leaf. The intricate chemistry involved in photosynthesis, the process where plants use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar, is the most effective solar energy conversion process on Earth. And researchers believe that mimicking parts of it could be the ticket to a limitless supply of clean power...

...At Imperial College London, researchers have embarked on a £1m project to study, and eventually mimic, photosynthesis. Part of a project called the "artificial leaf", involves working out exactly how leaves use sunlight to make useful molecules. The team then plans to build artificial systems that can do the same to generate clean fuels such as hydrogen and methanol. These would then be used in fuel cells to make electricity or directly to power super-clean vehicles.

Similar projects are gathering pace around the world: the US is poised to approve a federal research budget of around $35m a year for ideas that could create fuels from sunlight and the Dutch government has allocated €40m for similar research.

According to James Barber, a biologist at Imperial College London and leader of the artificial leaf project, if artificial photosynthesis systems could use around 10% of the sunlight falling on them, they would only need to cover 0.16% of the Earth's surface to satisfy a global energy consumption rate of 20 terawatts, the amount it is predicted that the world will need in 2030. And unlike a biological leaf, the artificial equivalent could be placed in the arid desert areas of the world, where it would not compete for space agricultural land.

There's more here . 

 

 

Inhabitat has published the 20 finalists in its ReBurbia suburban design competition. Some of my favourites include: 

Regenerative suburban median: Within many suburban developments there is an abundance of under utilized space within residential lots and public rights of way. Many suburban streets are 35-50ft wide; such widths unnecessarily consume ecological, social, and economic resources. We propose a new regenerative median for suburban streets that treats gray water and sewage, produces agriculture, provides a platform for small scale commercial activity and slows down automobile traffic to promote increased pedestrian activity and social interaction within the neighborhood.

Ex Box: There is a movement of reusing abandoned malls for community spaces. EX-BOX will allow the building to be self-sustaining by providing energy and space for public events. It provides renewable energy by maximizing the solar exposure with the use of various angles. By plugging in the programs that add density to the empty space and provides better environment, the space will bring people and allow community events.

Entrepenurbia: Rather than taking the traditional, additive approach to solving problems, the Entrepreneurbia model simply abolishes poorly conceived zoning laws to attract forward-thinking small business owners and start-up companies. The result is a community of entrepreneurs who transform inefficient single-family dwellings and purely decorative landscape spaces into intelligent home-based businesses.

C3 Initiative: The C3 initiative will “re-colonize” suburbs by adding localized and micro versions of retail, energy generation, water efficiency, community organization, and economic development. C3 colonies utilize existing/built environments but look inward and generate energy, water conservation, community and revenue as a sustainable micro-society.

 

An interesting article on TreeHugger examines the whole life cycles of both LED and CFL lightbulbs, asking which is the greenest option. The conclusion? 

Both the Carnegie Mellon and Osram studies found that production is a relatively small portion of the total life-cycle impact of the different lightbulb technologies. From the Osram study: "[with LEDs and CFLs] over 98% of the energy used is consumed to generate light. Less than two percent is allocated to production. This dismisses any concern that manufacturing of LED particularly might be very energy-intensive."

When comparing LEDs that produce about 30 lumens/watt to CFLs, the results are very close, and for all practical purposes, we can say that LEDs are as energy efficient as CFLs. But LEDs are still improving and they do not contain mercury, which makes their disposal less hazardous than CFLs. The Carnegie Mellon study predicts that efficiencies of 150 lumens/watt are possible for LEDs:

This would make LEDs take a significant lead and assure their dominance over CFLs, as long as prices can be brought down. Even if 150 lumens/watt isn't attainable in the near future, a doubling to 60 lumens/watt would leave CFLs in the dust.

 

Check out this profile and video tour of a house designed for US Green Building Council (USGBC) founder David Gottfried. The house boasts the highest 'platinum' certification under LEED, the USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building rating system, and features solar thermal and photovoltaics, rainwater collection, water efficient plumbing fixtures, reclaimed timber flooring, FSC-certified furniture, a natural lighting strategy and zero VOC finishes.

The UK's Green Building Council is publishing a report on its 'Pay As You Save' (PAYS) proposals today. The report will detail a scheme that would enable householders to undertake home energy upgrades at no initial cost, allowing them to pay for the work over time. Construct Ireland has been working on similar proposals for the Irish market, and described potential measures in this article.

The executive summary of the PAYS report, which has already been published, provides basic details on how the scheme would work:

My earliest memories associated with energy all relate to being chastised for forgetting to turn things off. There was nothing worse then the panic of realizing half way across town that the landing lights were left on, or worse still, that money guzzling immersion.

Most Irish of a certain age have been taken to task for committing similar mortal sins. Electricity costs money, and to be fair there was precious little around in the eighties, the decade from which these memories date.

Check out this short video by Dave Budge on the green roof at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The roof is designed to mimic native grasslands of British Columbia.   

The Times reports this morning that the European Environment Agency may recommend the introduction of Europe-wide regulations to encourage developers to include living wall systems in urban developments. The article states:

The European Environment Agency is considering Europe-wide building regulations that would encourage developers to include “vertical allotments” in their designs.

The agency, which advises the European Commission on measures to reduce climate change, is proposing that every city should have a showcase building with “living walls” of edible plants...

Construct Ireland took an in-depth look at living roofs and walls last year. 

 

 

Though the rating systems and certifications mentioned apply to the US, Green Building Advisor's guide to choosing low energy windows would be very useful to anyone, in Ireland or abroad, that's interested in buying high performance, energy efficient windows.

We're deep in throes of a deadline here at Construct Ireland (next issue due shortly), so blogging will be light over the next little while, but check out this short profile of Hanham Hall, a residential project that should achieve the highest rating on the UK's Code for Sustainable Homes. There's more info on the project here.

Writing on his blog, George Monbiot suggests the British government has abandoned plans to make all new homes there "zero carbon" by 2016 and to demand that the energy efficiency of homes be significantly improved whenever they are upgraded or extended. Monbiot says the plans were absent from the British government's latest consultation document on Part L of its building regulations.